ELLABELL, Ga. — Hyundai Motor Group — solidly No. 2 in the U.S. electric motor vehicle market in the first quarter — will plow $5.5 billion into its first devoted EV manufacturing facility in the world in this Georgia town, the South Korean automaker claimed Friday. Suppliers will invest an extra $1 billion.
The plant, about 30 miles northwest of Savannah, Ga., is a cornerstone of Hyundai’s lengthy-term expense in electric powered automobiles, and would make it the initially Asian automaker to commit a North American plant completely to EV output. All autos manufactured there will be offered in the U.S.
Along with the new plant, the automaker is scheduling to create a battery-production manufacturing unit with a joint husband or wife, the automaker’s CEO informed Automotive News. An announcement will occur “shortly.”
Hyundai Global COO José Muñoz, who is also the head of the automaker’s North American operations, verified that up to six versions will be constructed there by 2028, and that the manufacturing facility will make a blend of products. A provide chain field source who requested not to be discovered earlier informed Automotive News that the factory is anticipated to start with the Hyundai Ioniq 7 in 2025. The resource said that the production of a Kia EV pickup could start off in the initially half of 2026, followed by a Hyundai manufacturer compact EV pickup in the 2nd 50 percent. Genesis EV output is also planned.
This new factory represents “the foreseeable future of our organization,” Hyundai Motor Co. CEO Jaehoon Chang advised an audience collected right here. “You will support us to meet up with expanding requires of our U.S. buyers.”
“The transition into the U.S. marketplace will be significantly more quickly than we have predicted ahead of. So we are likely to be on the front,” Chang stated in an interview following the announcement. “That is why we are seeking to do something quicker than anybody else.”
The Hyundai team — maker of the Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brand names — has pledged $16 billion globally by way of 2030 for EVs. Kia Corp. has earmarked about half of its 5-calendar year, $22 billion financial commitment funds to long term jobs, this kind of as EVs.
The group is targeting once-a-year product sales of much more than 3 million EVs globally by 2030. The Hyundai and Genesis manufacturers are producing 17 battery-electric powered designs globally by 2030, and Kia plans a lineup of 14 EVs by 2027.
In the U.S., Hyundai sells the Kona Electric and Ioniq 5 crossovers, Kia sells the Niro EV and EV6 crossovers, and Genesis just introduced the GV60, which shares a devoted EV system with the Ioniq 5 and EV6. By future year, Hyundai will add an electrical sedan, Kia will start a a few-row electric powered crossover, and Genesis will add electrical versions of the G80 sedan and GV70 crossover.
Hyundai did not say which models would be built at the new manufacturing facility, but the automaker seeks to resource additional EVs in the vital North American market. In its press launch, the company explained it will create a “extensive assortment of innovative EV types” there.
“We feel it is a great minute to imagine about rising our potential in the U.S. and to concentration on what we think is not only the future but already the current, which is EV,” Muñoz told Automotive Information this thirty day period.
